Last year, I posted a thread on here when I got accepted to the American Brewers Guild and a lot of you had questions and wanted to hear more about the program. I just graduated yesterday so I figured I'd share some details of my experience and hopefully encourage some of you to consider. I apologize if this is a long post, but it's been a busy 5 weeks and I'm just now getting time to put my thoughts together as I sit in the airport, so I'll try to keep it somewhat organized. There are several programs offered by the ABG (check out the shiny new website here); I took the on-site Craft Brewers Apprenticeship/Intensive Brewing Sciences & Engineering course. This program is only offered every few years and is a small class, so get in while you can. The program is 5 weeks of classroom lectures & hands-on learning about nearly every aspect of brewing; the classes take place at Drop-In Brewing in Middlebury, Vermont. The classes are set up with 6 hours of lectures per day Monday-Friday (usually split into 2 sessions), 2 Saturday classes, and 3 exams. After graduation, you are set up with a 5 week internship at a participating brewery, with choices all across the US. A quick list of the topics covered: brewing processes malting technology/biochemistry water chemistry specialty malts/malt handling mash technology/biochem engineering (8 days): brewhouse calculations, all brewing processes, technology, etc. sensory science/evaluation (includes off flavor tasting sessions) hops (2 days) fermentation technology/biochem yeast biochem/biology flavor biochem beer maturation bottle conditioning beer and food pairing clarification sanitation hands-on brewing/filtration labs (2 days) chemical/microbiological analysis barrel aging beer dispense packaging equipment design/engineering beer styes brewery safety & care The list of guest lecturers from all parts of the industry was seriously impressive, but my highlights were: Matt Brynildson (Firestone Walker) - everything about hops you ever wanted to know. Great guy. Dave Logsdon (Wyeast, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales) - everything yeast, but especially sour beers Denise Jones (Moylans, Napa Point) - beer maturation Gwen Conley (Lost Abbey) - everything about barrel aging, and a very entertaining speaker John Mallet (Bell's) - practical considerations for brewery design, very helpful for someone looking to open their own brewery Garret Oliver (Brooklyn) - bottle conditioning/beer and food pairing. Easily my favorite lecture of the course, as he cooked us a 5 course meal and entertained us with great stories and a sort of verbal history of where beer fits in with food and culture. Hilarious, smart, humble and clearly in touch with what's going on in the industry and its broader context in culture. Plus he brought some awesome beers! Pros: small class size - 22 this time, so you get plenty of opportunities to ask questions and never feel lost. great staff - can't say enough about Steve Parkes and everyone at ABG. Great people with tons of experience who are always there to help you out and want to see you succeed. They really made the program what it is. And they make some damn good beers. location - Middlebury is about 1 hour from Burlington, 1.5 from Waterbury. Great small and larger breweries are all over the place, not to mention amazing beer bars, shops, and awesome food everywhere. Vermont is one of the most beautiful landscapes I've seen, if not a little quirky in culture, but they love their beer and keeping it local here. The beer - I won't go into too much detail, but it's Vermont. There's great beer EVERYWHERE. The people - most important part of the experience. My classmates are all friends of mine now and made my time what it was. The guest lecturers were awesome, especially the brewers from local breweries Cons: Class time - necessary, but they aren't joking when they say intensive. It took me a while to get used to sitting in class all day again, and there was maybe too many days of engineering lectures. It's about 150 hours of class all together, so you have to make the most of your time off and there's way too much to see in 5 weeks. Housing - it's pretty much up to you to set up your housing, although they do have some deals with local hotels/hostels. Plenty of camping spots around if you need to save some money though. Cost - it's not cheap for this program, but you get what you paid for and more. TL;DR: If you're serious about getting into the craft beer industry and don't mind working hard while having fun, I can't recommend the ABG enough. I wasn't sure what to expect when I flew out to Vermont but I couldn't be happier with my decision. My time out here reaffirmed what I love about craft beer: the people are so welcoming and passionate; I walked into a house with six strangers who are now my best friends. There are ABG grads at every level of the industry, and it's amazing to be part of a network of great people who want to help each other succeed. If you guys have any questions I'm more than happy to help, feel free to BM me as well. Cheers!
i don't have any direct experience with the american brewer's guild, but... to put it together, 1) did the ABG program, 2) fit right in at NEBCO with rob who himself makes awesome beer, 3) elevated NEBCO to the next level with gandhi bot, 668, galaxy, FBD 4) collaborated to turn sea hag into an amazing beer too we new englanders rave about NEBCO incessantly, and matt's a big part of it (gold stock, wet willy, imperial stout trooper are big parts of it too). if this program yields brewers like him, i support it!
Great post, glad it went well for ya! The thing that jumped out at me was 2 days of hops. 2 full days? You listed 25 topics, and with 30 days of classes, it seems that spending 2 days on hops was kind of a lot. It seems some of the other topics (malts, fermentation, yeast, sanitation, packaging, safety) would have needed more time. But, I just drink, not brew. Again, congrats and I hope your career goes where you want it to.
Looking back at my schedule I realized that was a typo, it was one full day so 2 sessions. But he easily could have done 2 days, Matt knows everything about hops: started with history of hop usage in brewing, cultivation, biology, processing, then went into hop chemistry, utilization and brewhouse calculations. He's put in his time learning about each step of the process and knows the farmers. He even showed us a Google map with every hop farm in the US pinned on it, which was cool to see. Cool dude, although a bit shorter than I expected
I should also mention that a bunch of the topics I listed above are pretty interrelated and we spent several days on yeast, malt, fermentation, etc. but they were split into several days with other topics.
Sounds very rewarding. I finished up the WBA Siebel/Doemen's course one year ago. I did look into that program since I was interning for an ABG grad but ended up going with WBA. What's next for you? I'm curious to hear what kind of brewing you'll be doing. People from my class ended up brewing at just about every size/scale.
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. Makes for a good and informative read. Also helps bring a few tings into focus in a new way. Best wishes on the next stage of your career!
